1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to electronic devices in general, and in particular to field programmable gate arrays. Still more particularly, the present invention relates to a universal non-volatile support device for supporting reconfigurable processing systems.
2. Description of Related Art
Field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) are commonly utilized to demonstrate or prove out a conceptual data processing system. Offering similar densities and performance as application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), FPGAs are typically a driver for the latest technology. There are two types of FPGAs, namely, fuse-based FPGAs and memory-based FPGAs. Fuse-based FPGAs can only be written once after which no change can be made to the logic. Memory-based FPGAs, on the other hand, have changeable logic but need to be reloaded each time. Thus, memory-based FPGAs are more suitable for implementing reconfigurable processing systems.
A reconfigurable processing system typically includes multiple reconfigurable FPGA building blocks that are capable of being morphed into any required processing capability after the reconfigurable processing system has been assembled. Thus, reconfigurable processing systems can play a major role in responsive spacecraft, fault-tolerant spacecraft and multi-mission spacecraft because the functionalities of reconfigurable processing systems can be easily modified for specific needs even after a spacecraft has been launched into space.
Reconfigurable processing systems are typically put together with off-the-shelf pre-defined components. As FPGAs become more widespread with improving capabilities, reconfigurable computing elements (RCEs) formed by FPGAs will soon be employed throughout reconfigurable processing systems, both as stand-alone elements and as embedded elements. Many of the RCEs share similar reconfigurable enabling technologies; however, rather than one RCE configuration fits all, there are specializations in each application area that best fit different types of RCEs.
The present disclosure provides a universal non-volatile support device for supporting random access memory-based reconfigurable processing systems and other types of reconfigurable electronics such as field programmable analog arrays.